The Greyshade Estate: First Photos

We are now the owners of... land and a building. It cannot be called a home yet, and certainly not a homestead but the potential is there. Our dreams of organic gardening, greywater systems, Victorian molding, steampunk lighting fixtures, solar panels etc., have to wait. For now we must concentrate on making the place inhabitable. Escrow left us with far less money to fix the place up than we thought we would have but we will find a way. We will salvage, modify, reuse, repurpose and think outside the box. We are steampunks after all.

Here it is. It is 972 square feet, three bedrooms, one bath, one car garage, built in 1953. Our eldest son says it looks kind of like a farmhouse, which is cool because that is exactly what it will be.


It sits on 7800 square feet of gently sloping land. Plenty of growing room but we will be making dozens of trips to the Miramar landfill for free mulch and compost before we can use it, as it's almost entirely clay.



All we know for sure about last occupants is that there were at least ten of them according to our new next door neighbors. Yes, that's right, less than a hundred square feet per person. They were attempting to put in a second bathroom before the bank gave them the boot. The only plumbing that was done was a branch to the sewer line. Unfortunately it was poorly done and leaks. Also unfortunately, the walls they put in made the master bedroom unusably small and without a closet.


The backdoor is the wrong size and is nailed shut.





This is the living room. The whole interior has poorly applied semi gloss paint in funky colors. A lot of it is so badly applied that it can be scraped off with a fingernail.




The kitchen looked dirty but usable at first. Then we realized that there was no place for a fridge to hook up except over by the window in the space we need for dining area. Then we looked under the sink. It looks bad but the mildew smell is the really juicy part! Plus the water damage is probably irreparable.



The garage had no door. In its place is a plywood panel. We think it was being used as a bedroom. There is an odd drop ceiling that is lower than the top of the kitchen door. The ceiling also has gaping holes. Obviously it needs to go, but it's not a top priority.

I've already begun taking out the second bathroom. The top priority is the leaking sewer line. Because this is a major health and safety issue we are hiring a contractor.

So it begins. We have a great deal of work ahead of us and only the basic knowledge of home repair. We're doing research at the library and online to acquire the skills we need. Expect to see big changes in the next few months.